Sri Lanka’s women have reached the semi-finals of the Asian Games cricket tournament, beating Malaysia by 86 runs in the third quarter-final in Nisshin, Japan, on Friday.
Batting first, Sri Lanka made 160 for 4 from their 20 overs. Malaysia were held to 74 for 7 in reply, Hiru News reported.
Athapaththu sets it up
Captain Chamari Athapaththu made 63 from 37 balls, an innings struck at better than a run a ball throughout, and Kavisha Dilhari finished unbeaten on 44 from 27.
Between them the two contributed 107 of Sri Lanka’s 160 — roughly two-thirds of the total — from 64 of the 120 deliveries available. The remaining batters accounted for the balance across the innings.
Malaysia never approached the rate required. Chasing 161, they needed just over eight an over and managed fewer than four, losing seven wickets in the attempt.
A first match, straight into the last eight
Sri Lanka entered the tournament with direct entry to the quarter-finals, meaning Friday’s match was their first of the competition — a single knockout game standing between the squad and the semi-finals.
The squad was named on 16 September, two days before the match.
Not reported
Hiru does not give the bowling figures, the fall of wickets, or the names of Malaysia’s batters and Sri Lanka’s wicket-takers. It does not name Sri Lanka’s semi-final opponents, or give the date and venue of that match — the questions the result most immediately raises.
Nor does it say how the other quarter-finals finished, or confirm the tournament format beyond the quarter-final stage.
One caution for readers searching the fixture: Sri Lanka and Malaysia also met at the 2024 Women’s Asia Cup, where Sri Lanka won by 144 runs in a match featuring a record-equalling Athapaththu century. That is a different match in a different competition two years earlier, and its scorecard is not this one.
